Federal Service for Military-Technical CooperationFederal Service for Technical and Export ControlFederal Service for Defence ContractsFederal Agency for Special ConstructionFederal Agency for the supply of arms, military and special equipment and material supplies

The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (Russian: Министерство обороны Российской Федерации, Минобороны России, informally abbreviated as МО, МО РФ or Minoboron) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces.

The President of Russia is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and directs the activity of the Ministry. The Defence Minister exercises day-to-day administrative and operational authority over the armed forces.[2] The General Staff executes the president′s and the defence minister's instructions and orders.

The main building of the ministry, built in the 1980s, is located on Arbatskaya Square, near Arbat Street. Other buildings of the ministry are located throughout the city of Moscow. The supreme body responsible for the Ministry's management and supervision of the Armed Forces is The National Defense Management Center (Национальный центр управления обороной РФ) located on Frunze Naberezhnaya and responsible for the centralization of the Armed Forces' command.

The structure of the Russian Defense Ministry does not imply military subordination to civilian authority in the Western sense.[3] The historical tradition of military command is considerably different in Russia. The tsars were educated as officers, and they regularly wore military uniforms and held military rank. Josef Stalin in his later years in power frequently wore a military uniform, and he assumed the title Generalissimo of the Soviet Union. Likewise, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was named Marshal of the Soviet Union. By tradition dating back to the tsars, the Minister of Defense was a uniformed officer,' with military background (Dmitry Milyutin, Rodion Malinovsky) or without (Dmitriy Ustinov). The State Duma also seats a large number of deputies who are active-duty military officers—another tradition that began in the Russian imperial era. These combinations of military and civilian authority ensure that military concerns are considered at the highest levels of the Russian government.

In March 2001, Sergei Ivanov, previously secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation was appointed defence minister by President Vladimir Putin, becoming Russia's first non-uniformed civilian defence minister.[4]
Putin called the personnel changes in Russia's security structures coinciding with Ivanov's appointment as defence minister "a step toward demilitarizing public life." Putin also stressed Ivanov's responsibility for overseeing military reform as defence minister. What Putin did not emphasise was Ivanov's long service within the KGB and FSB and his then rank of General-Lieutenant within the FSB. Such military and security agency associated men are known as siloviki.

As of 2002 there were four living Marshals of the Soviet Union. Such men are automatically Advisors to the Defence Minister. The Marshals alive at that time were Viktor Kulikov, Vasily Petrov, Sergei Sokolov, a former Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union, and Dmitri Yazov. Yazov was listed by the American analysts Scott and Scott in 2002 as a consultant to the (former 10th) Directorate for International Military Cooperation[5]

Perhaps the first 'real' non-uniformed Defence Minister was Anatoliy Serdyukov, appointed in February 2007. Serdyukov was a former Tax Minister with little siloviki or military associations beyond his two years' military service.

The Ministry of Defence is managed by a collegium chaired by the Defence Minister and including the deputy Defence Ministers, heads of Main Defence Ministry and General Staff Directorates, and the commanders of the Joint Strategic Commands/Military Districts, the three Services, and three branches, who together form the principal staff and advisory board of the Minister of Defence.

The executive body of the Ministry of Defence is the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It is commanded by the Chief of General Staff. U.S. expert William Odom said in 1998 that 'the Soviet General Staff without the MoD is conceivable, but the MoD without the General Staff is not.'[6] Russian General Staff officers exercise command authority in their own right. In 1996 the General Staff included fifteen main directorates and an undetermined number of operating agencies. The staff is organized by functions, with each directorate and operating agency overseeing a functional area, generally indicated by the organization's title.

Military Thought is the military-theoretical journal of the Ministry of Defence, and Krasnaya Zvezda its daily newspaper.

Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation – First Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation – General of the Army Valery Gerasimov (since 9 November 2012)

First Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation – Active State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 1st Class Ruslan Tsalikov (since 24 December 2015)

Deputy Minister(s) of Defence:

State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation – General of the Army (Retired) Nikolay Pankov (since 13 September 2005)

Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising Material-Technical Support for the Armed Forces) – General of the Army Dmitry Bulgakov (since 27 July 2010)

Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising Financial Support for the Armed Forces) – Active State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 1st Class Tatiana Shevtsova (since 4 August 2010)

Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation – Supervisor of the Apparatus of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation – Colonel GeneralYuriy Sadovenko (since 7 January 2013)

Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for the Development of the Technical Basis for the Management System and Information Technology) – General of the Army Pavel Popov (since 7 November 2013)

Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising Property Management, Quartering of Troops (Forces), Housing, and Medical Support for the Armed Forces) – Active State Advisor of the Russian Federation, 2nd Class Timur Ivanov (since 23 May 2016)

Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising International Military and Military-Technical Cooperation) – Colonel General Alexander Fomin (since 31 January 2017)

Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation (Responsible for Organising Military-Technical Support for the Armed Forces) – Aleksey Krivoruchko (since 13 June 2018)

Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation – Chief of the Main Directorate for Political-Military Affairs of the Russian Armed Forces – Colonel General Andrey Kartapolov (since 30 July 2018)

Entities directly subordinated to the Minister of Defence in August 2012 included:[7]

Between 9 September 1991 and 7 May 1992 the Russian Federation de jure didn't have its own Minister of Defence. During this period its armed forces were under control of Minister of Defence of the Soviet Union Yevgeny Shaposhnikov.

Konstantin Kobets (?? June 1993 – 18 May 1997), Chief Military Inspector of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

Matvei Burlakov (23 August 1994 – 9 February 1995)

Anatoly Solomatin (9 February 1995 – ?? April 1997), Chief of Construction and Quartering of Troops

Vladimir Churanov (17 January 1995 – 16 June 1997), Chief of Logistics of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

Aleksandr Kosovan (?? April 1997 – 6 March 2003), Chief of Construction and Quartering of Troops

Vladimir Isakov (30 June 1997 – 2 December 2008), Chief of Logistics of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

Mikhail Dmitriyev (13 November 2000 – 8 April 2004)

Aleksei Moskovsky (28 March 2001 – 19 April 2007), Chief of Armament of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

Igor Puzanov (28 March 2001 – 18 October 2004), State Secretary

Lyubov Kudelina (28 March 2001 – 18 October 2004), Chief of the Main Financial-Economic Administration of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation and Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation for Financial-Economic Work; (1 September 2007 – 14 April 2009), Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation for Financial-Economic Work

Nikolai Kormiltsev (28 April 2001 – 29 September 2004), Commander-in-chief of the Land Force

Anatoly Grebenyuk (4 March 2003 – 18 October 2004), Chief of Construction and Quartering of Troops

Nikolai Makarov (19 April 2007 – 3 June 2008), Chief of Armament of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

Oleg Eskin (19 November 2007 – 20 November 2008)

Vladimir Popovkin (?? July 2008 – 21 June 2010), Chief of Armament of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation